A mix of travel tips, history, music and fine food as I explore Venezuela in the footsteps of the great German scientist and adventurer Alexander von Humboldt.

Sunday, November 6, 2011

Venezuelan beauty Ivian Sarcos wins Miss World 2011

Ivian Lunasol Sarcos Colmenares, a 21-year-old from Guanare in Venezuela's Portuguesa State, beat 120 of the world's most beautiful women to win the coveted Miss World crown in London on Sunday, 6 November 2011.

Venezuela also holds six Miss Universe titles, only surpassed by the USA with seven.

In 2009, 18-year-old Stefania Fernandez made Miss Universe history when she was crowned by her compatriot and 2008 winner Dayana Mendoza.

It was the first time any country has had successive victories since the pageant began in 1952.

No wonder Venezuela has a reputation for producing the most beautiful women in the world.

Combining a rare beauty with a fine brain, Ivian Sarcos is a human resources graduate, but her life has certainly not been all glitter and sparkles.

The newly-crowned Miss World was born the youngest of 13 children and was orphaned at the age of eight when both her parents died within nine months: her mother in a domestic accident and her father in a car accident.

At the age of 10 she was taken in by nuns from the Santa María Micaela del Sagrado Corazón de Jesús convent in San Carlos, Cojedes State, and considered becoming a nun before deciding to follow a university career.

She put herself through college by waiting tables in a fast food restaurant and later worked in a store in the Sambil shopping mall in Caracas to pay her way through university. It was there in 2009 that she was spotted by a friend of Osmel Sousa, the head of the Miss Venezuela organization.

Hollywood couldn't come up with a more dramatic fairytale than the story of Ivian Sarcos and the incredible drive, determination and luck that saw her crowned Miss World tonight in front of a global TV audience of 1 billion people.

After the ceremony, an emotional Sarcos spoke about the tragic loss of her parents, saying: "This has taught me that life, although it may be bad, doesn't have to end badly. Although I no longer have my parents it has taught me to be stronger."

My Book: Culture Smart! Venezuela

My Book: The Bradt Guide to Venezuela

After 12 years of adventuring in Venezuela I came back to try my luck in the UK.
Although I try to visit Venezuela as often as I can it does tug at my heart strings some nights that I am too far from Choroni to hear the tambores on the malecon.
Fortunately my job as a journalist in England allows me to follow Venezuelan and Latin American developments and keep my Spanish up to scratch.
The UK is also a good place to do research and meet other like-minded Latin-America-philes for proper rum and salsa sessions.